Well that didn't fing go as planned
by LazyPhoenix
Summary: Two gals on the Finalizer being in way over their heads. Don't take it too seriously, it's just for fun! I had a good time writing it so I hope you will enjoy reading it. This is basically based on me and my best friend's friendship. Work in progress; may edit and rewrite some stuff. M for language
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_Holy shit, we're Jedi! _

A pointed look.

_I doubt it. We're barely force sensitive. I think. _

The other young women shrugged.

_That's what Jedi are._ _Force sensitive. _

She giggled again, earning another pointed look from her friend across the room.

_We're probably not even that. Maybe we just got an implant-_ "Ow! What the fuck!? Did you just throw your _shoe_ at me?" - "Stop rationalizing! We're amazing!"

_Calm down, we don't know that yet. _

She rolled her eyes at her shoe-throwing friend and put her index finger on her lips, to remind her friend that they'd been told to wait _silently. _

_And I'm keeping your fucking shoe. _

_No, you're not, idiot._

_Watch me. Idiot._

_You little- _

The door burst open and slammed the young, red haired woman right in the face, in mid-launch to get her shoe back.  
"Ellin, Taia, you two need to get up and the fuck out- where is Taia?" - "You just smashed her face in with the door."  
The woman, Ellin, pointed to where her friend was lying on the floor, knocked out cold. The 'friend of a friend who knew someone who actually knew something about the Force and didn't want his name involved', stood in the door, stunned.

"Now, why do we need to get out again? Is this a ruse? Nuk told me you could take us to Maz-" - "I'm afraid that's not possible anymore."  
_Not possible? You fucker.  
_Ellin furrowed her brows, her mouth set in concentration.

_WAKE THE FUCK UP, TAIA! WE'VE BEEN FUCKED OVER. DO YOU HEAR ME? ARE YOU DEAD!?I_

The groan behind the door told her that her friend had indeed heard her. "Take us to Maz or I swear I'll- " _Kill you? Too general. Torture you? Tell on you? For fucks sake!_

**_Taia, help me get a decent threat out. _**

Taia stood up, sporting a fresh stylish nosebleed and shoved Mr. You-can't-know-my-name.

_Oh my god, did you just shove him? Why the _fuck _are you so lame?_

"Well, sorry, I just took a fucking door to my face, give me some space", she spat out while holding her sleeve to her nose to stop the bleeding. Anonymous Dude just stared and let out a frustrated sigh, the shove having been unsurprisingly ineffective to intimidate him.

"Listen, girls, we _really _need to leave, the First-" - "YOU listen now, Curly Boy."  
Taia stood up to her full height, which would have actually been impressive because she towered over the young man, but the door had done its damage and – well, she looked like someone who just got a door to their face.  
Her bright red hair was sticking out in all directions, dried blood smeared all over her nose and mouth, tears streaming down her face from the hit to the nose.

_E: Curly Boy. Now he'll listen, alright. Good job._

_T: Shut up, Ellin. I'm improvising._

_E: You shut up, Taia. _

Just as Curly Dude was about to open his mouth again he was interrupted by a very frustrated, girly squeal.

"Oh, by the holy shit, let me handle things for once. I've got this, Ellin."

"Girls, please."

"Dude, shut up. Taia the tactical genius is speaking." _Can you hear my sarcasm, Taia? _

"Girls-"

"Oh, I'm _sorry_, that I'm the only one thinking of a solution here!"

"Guys-"

The poor dude looked lost between them, sweat pearling at his forehead. "We really need to go-"

There was a silent second before both of them went down in a screeching mess of black and red hair. Pulling and scratching while never really effectively hurting each other. "WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP BEHAVING LIKE CHILDREN?" Nuk's friend's friend who knew Maz Kanata pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers and exhaled a long breath. "I cannot take you to Maz Kanata because – _let me speak _– the First Order just pulverized her castle and we need to get the fuck off Takodana." That shut them up efficiently.

_E: What do we do now? How do we get off-planet? Glorious Curls here was just supposed to take us to Maz. _

"I'll take you off-planet _under two conditions_."

_E: Did he just- can he? _

They both nodded eagerly. Ready to fuck off this planet and away from the murderous, evil First Order.

_E: BLINK TWICE DUDE IF YOU CAN HEAR MY THOUGHTS!_

Taia turned to Ellin with a confused expression and blinked twice with a raised eyebrow.

_T: Of course, I can, you dense little shitter, that's why we're here in the first place._

_E: Not __**you**__, our male dude friend here – I thought he heard me. I guess it was just a coincidence._

"The both of you need to behave. I'm on my way to...somewhere and I can drop you off along the way in the Outer Rim. And we need a bigger ship. Mine's too small for the three of us."

Taia nodded. "We have one outside but I'm afraid our pilot droid malfunctioned during landing." The Dude smiled. A very attractive smile, by the way. Like the rest of him.

"_I'm_ a pilot."

Ellin narrowed her eyes. "You're a pilot?" He nodded, pulling both of them up by their arms and dragged them out of the room they'd been waiting in.

_E: Well this is convenient. Maybe he's going to kidnap us and deliver us to the First Order._

_T: Stop being so skeptical, Ellin. We're just lucky. __**OR-**_

_E: Don't think it-_

_T: __**OR **__the Force is with us!_

_E: God _damn_ it, Taia. What would the First Order want with us anyways?_

They exited the small stone building together only to freeze at the sight of a burning and crumbling castle just a few miles off. The handsome pilot didn't, he just continued walking towards a very badly hidden ship. The bulky thing was slightly tilted to the left with a few tree branches thoughtlessly thrown over the hull.

"_Damn._ How did we miss that?" The pilot shrugged. "It happened quite fast. I almost forgot the two of you." Ellin sighed, tearing her eyes away from the wreckage. "Why not leave without us? Why risk it?"

_T: Ellin, stop being so fucking suspicious. He's clearly a good guy. I mean, look at that adorable smile. _

She just threw Taia a narrow-eyed look before focusing on their pilot again.

He shrugged again and smiled. "I promised I'd take you to Maz and now that that's not possible the least I can do is help you get out of the danger-zone."

_T: See? He's just a genuinely sweet guy. Try to see some good in the people around you._

"Is this an Allanar N3? It looks a bit banged up." Pilot Sexy scratched the back of his head while eyeing their starship. It was an ugly, old thing that had been patched up entirely too many times but still managed to get them successfully around the galaxy. „Possible, I don't know much about ships. It's a freighter with a hyperdrive and it's not entirely junk." He snorted and smirked. "Well enough. I can fly anything."

_E: I hope his arrogance is well placed._

_T: Not like you, eh, Ellin?_

_E: Oh, shut up, Taia._

"What about your ship? Are you just going to leave it behind?" - "Don't worry, it's been taken care of." He winked at Ellin, who still eyed him suspiciously, and opened the hatch to get inside the spacecraft.

_E: Taia, I think I know him. He looks familiar._

_T: Everyone looks familiar to you. He's just hot, that's all._

They sat behind him, watching fascinated as he punched buttons and did wonders with the controls they had no clue how to operate. He stayed friendly all the time and even kept up a little small talk to ease up the tension that Ellin was creating. "Pilot." - "Yes, Ellin?" He said patiently without looking up. "What's your name?" He turned around, enabling the autopilot in order to peacefully talk to them and sighed. The corner of his mouth twitched. A smile was never far from that face.

_E: Maybe he wants to seduce us. _

Taia rolled her eyes.

T: _I'd be happy if he did. I have nothing against a bit of fun._

"I think we agreed not to mention that. It would be better for the three of us if you didn't know." - "Are you a criminal?" The hint of the smile turned into a toothy grin. "No."

_E: That's what a criminal would say. _

"Why did you two want to see Maz Kanata?" He asked with a knowing glint in his eye. "See? Now we're even", he said after some silence.

After finding out that their charming pilot was basically un-annoyable – they tried hard – they couldn't help but like him. A lot. Even Ellin.

_E: You win, Taia. He's a gold nugget. Adorable little fucker._

"So, girls, I'll be leaving you on Sullust. It's New Republic territory, so you won't have to worry about the First Order. You'll be safe there." - "What about you? How are you going to get...wherever you need to go?" He stood up, having parked the freighter on a cargo bay. The pilot laughed, patting Taia's shoulder. "Don't worry, someone's waiting for me here, you guys worry about getting yourselves another pilot."

"You should try contacting Maz again, once this whole _situation _has died down." Situation meaning brewing war. Gold Nugget winked. "If I see you next time, I'll tell you my name."

T: _Maybe he's Resistance. _

Ellin snorted. _Yeah right and I'm Han Solos daughter. _

They said their good-byes in front of the freighter and waved enthusiastically as he disappeared into the crowd.

_T: Sweet ass._

_E: Don't be crude, Taia._

_T: Says the wrong fucking person._

_Obligatory disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. I would love to hear what your thoughts are.  
FYI: English is not my first language. I'm glad for pointers from native speakers._


	2. Chapter 2

E: "Guess what."

T: "What?"

E: "Guess!"

T: "Guess _what_?"

E: "You're boring."

T: "You're confusing. Out with it."

E: "I just got us jobs!"

T: "That's fantastic. Why are you being weird about it?"

E: "I'm not! Thank me! I even spent a whole hour on improving our CV's."

T: "Why would you do that?"

E: "More money. _Obviously."_

T: "How did you find those _jobs_ of ours?"

E: "A cousin of mine told me there were a lot of new openings due to some freak one-time accident."

T: "Aha. Accident."

E: "And his wife's brother works on one of these big-ass starships. And _he_ said he could get us decent jobs if we had the qualifications. His boss is apparently a real nice dude."

T: "You got us jobs on a starship."

E: "Stop repeating what I say!"

T: "What's the name of the ship?"

E: "It's not that important."

T: "Then you'll have no trouble telling me the name of that ship where your cousin so gladly got us jobs. And what _are_ our jobs?"

E: "You're a Communications Officer and I'm a Doctor. Well, field medic, officially. They need more Officers on board with specialized training. And it's my cousin's wife's brother's boss that got us the jobs. His name is Mitaka."

T: "Okay. We could actually pull that off for a while. You did some field medizing. And I did some communicating. Why are you avoiding mentioning our employers?"

E: "Oh. You'll see. We'll board the ship tomorrow on Eriadu where it's resupplying. We'll get our own living quarters!"

T: "I have a bad feeling about this."

E: "Own living quarters!"

T: "_What's the name of the ship, Ellin?_"

E: "It rhymes with _'Fninalizer'._"

T: "And could our employers name by any chance rhyme with '_Fnirst Order'_?"

E: "Possible."

Taia scratched her chin, face scrunched up in fake concentration. "Remind me again who our _dashing _pilot helped us escape from?"

E: "_Escape _is a strong word for what we did. We just got out of the danger zone."

T: "And working on a fucking Star Destroyer is _not_ the epitome of a danger zone? And on top of that in the middle of a war?"

E: "Aw, come on those ships are indestructible!"

T: "As indestructible as the Death Stars? Both of them?" But then Taia sighed and shrugged. "Well, we've done dumber things. So, who do we report to in Eriadu?"

E: "My cousin's wife's-"

T: "Short, please."

E: "_Okay_. Mitaka's boss."

T: "Who's this Mitaka again?"

Ellin sighed and closed her eyes in annoyance.

E: "_I told you._ He's my cousin's wife's brother's boss."

T: "So sorry. And we're to report to _his_ boss? What's his name?"

E: "Hux. He's super high up the command chain."

T: "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! How can you assume I don't know him? He's the fucking face of the First Order! We _just_ saw a propaganda movie with the freaking General himself! _You made fun of his hat._ "  
Taia practically hissed the last sentence, her teeth clenched shut in an angry expression. The color of her face almost matched the color of her hair.

Ellin just smiled sweetly and waved her hand in front of Taia's face, as if she could get rid of her annoyance like she would bat away a fly. "We have to dye our hair, by the way. That way, we can avoid unwanted attention."

"You _do_ know that they wouldn't care about my hair color, right?"  
Ellin shrugged. "Hux has red hair. Maybe he'll be annoyed by your fake, redder hair. And I already sent them the records of both of us with brown hair."

"You're an idiot. Want some bantha noodles? They're awful." Taia held the box of noodles up, which she'd been eating before Ellin barged in with the 'good news'.

"Hell yes. I love ugly noodles."

_-Boarding the Finalizer-_

"So, you just hoped that I'd accept your shadiness about these too-well-paid jobs without question and... what? Surprise the fuck out of me once we're on the Finalizer where I can't talk you out of this?"

"I admit that I didn't calculate your nosiness."

"You didn't calculate my brain into this."

They were staring up at the giant spaceship floating above them as their transport shuttle slowly made its ways towards it.  
They were on board with another fifty new employees, all of them already in uniforms, their belongings in a bag across their shoulders. As they drew nearer, all the conversations died down, with only tense silence and the humming of the spacecraft's engine remaining.

_E: We look properly professional._

Taia threw Ellin a smug smile.

_T: W_e _look fucking amazing. I never had_ _boots _this _shiny_.

_E: Taia, I think I'm nervous. Was this a bad idea?_

They both kept on staring at the impossibly large ship, growing ever larger the closer they got to its hangar.

Taia nearly snorted.

T: _Of course, it's a bad idea_. _And you're not nervous, you're excited._

After the third ID check and second body scan, they received their First Order commissioned blasters. Ellin got a small, DX-14 blaster pistol while Taia was equipped with a slightly larger model.  
She holstered the little black shiny thing and narrowed her eyes at Taia's smug smile.

E: _I'm a medic first, and an officer second. That's why my weapon is smaller. I'm not jealous._

T: _Whatever helps you sleep at night, kid._

Additionally, they were issued another two pairs of uniforms, one for off- and another for on-duty. Both with their rank insignias on the cuff of the left sleeve that identified them as officers to the other crew members.  
Taia's work uniform was charcoal grey while the other one was a black _recreational, off-duty _one. Ellin got the identical black one but a light gray jump suit that distinguished her as a medic.

Upon arrival on the ship, they were already dressed in their off-duty First Order uniforms, with black leather gloves and, much to Ellin's dismay, a hat.  
Both of them had their hair in a neat bun behind their neck.

T: _Is there a cantina on board or a place to watch holo movies? For _recreation _on a fucking war ship?_

E: _Well, I'm just happy that I don't have to wear a fucking jumpsuit everywhere I go. I look ridiculous in jumpsuits. They make me look tiny._

T:_ You _are _tiny, Ellin._

E: Not _being a fucking giant is not the definition of tiny, Taia. _

T: _Well, Ellin, then _not _being tiny is not the definition of being a giant._

E: _This conversation is pointless. _

T: _I agree._

Taia eyed the keycard in her hand which would give her access to all the rooms she was required to go in. _Oh god, I'm going to lose this thing so many times,_ Taia thought to herself_._

"What are you doing with my datapad, Ellin? I need that later."  
Ellin sighed and shoved it back into Taia's bag. "It's all shiny new epic First Order issue, but there is not one single game on it!" – "Oh no, I'm shocked… Seriously? What did you expect?" Ellin shrugged. "You never know. But I typed in our access codes in case we forget. I know we're not supposed to, but…" She shrugged again without finishing her sentence and went on to examine her new communicator on her wrist.

A service droid informed them that their used uniforms and undergarments were washed and replaced daily. If they desired anything other than the standard toiletries, they had to commission them, and it would be deducted from their pay.

"Why aren't we in the same quarters? Wouldn't that be easier? For them, I mean? We'd be occupying less space", said Taia.  
Ellin studied the map on the walls of one of the many hallways they passed in search of their quarters while trying to get orientated. Taia joined her, leaving the little box-shaped droid that was leading them to wait in the middle of the hall.  
"Because we're officers, and therefore have the _privilege_ of having our own room. Only soldiers have to share", Ellin answered, eyes still glued to the map.  
The droid behind them beeped frantically in an attempt to hurry them up. "Okay. And how do you know that?" – "I asked the quartermaster. Shit, our rooms are ten minutes apart _by turbolift. _How fucking huge is this ship?"

Taia shrugged.

T: _As big as a fucking city, apparently._

"Hurry up, Ellin, you can get oriented later, we need to drop our stuff off and get back to the command hall in time for General Hux's speech."

_E: I'm looking forward to his hat._

_T: Just promise me not to laugh in his face. _

_E: Calm down, I'll be positioned somewhere in the back anyways. Nobody would notice._

They fucking put her in the first fucking row of the whole fucking batch of new employees who were attending the fucking speech. Out of all the 5'000 she had been selected to stand first in row with nineteen other unlucky bastards.

_E: Shit. _

And he was wearing his hat.

E: _Fucking shit._

Ellin could see him, standing with his back to her and talking to some senior officers. His red hair standing out against all the black and grey around him.

T: _Calm down, Ellin._

E: _Easy for you to say, Miss Back-Row. I'm a medic! Why do I have to be in front!_

T: _At least try to look as if you're paying attention. _

Taia caught an evil eye from an officer standing next to her when she tried standing on her tip toes to look for Ellin. But she couldn't see anything apart from the rows and rows of First Order officers, soldiers and…other military staff.  
And the elevated platform, where a tall, slender man stood at the very edge, looking over the straight, uniformed rows. _General Hux_, she thought with narrowing eyes.  
He looked different from how she remembered him from the promo. She looked to her right, from where she saw the huge screen with the close-up of Hux's face, for the _less fortunate_ who were further back and couldn't see him.  
_He looks…somber. I thought there was a bit more _maniac _in his eyes. But I guess losing a whole space station wouldn't make one skip and smile. _Taia cocked her head to the side._  
_A nervous wave of giddy _something_ from Ellin's thoughts made Taia focus on her again. Tune into her channel, so to speak.

E: _Oh, I am paying attention. All my attention is on him. Only on him. _

T: _Ellin? What the fuck?_

E: _He is…He is GORGEOUS!_

T: _Shit._

E: _Ohmygodhiseyesareblue!_

T: _Are you for real? You didn't even find him attractive when we saw the propaganda! _

E: _I was only focusing on his words, then. Have you ever seen perfect-shaped lips?_

T: _Are you seriously crushing on the mass-murdering, ruthless, cruel leader of the First Order?_

E: _Yes. So hard. _

T: _What about his fucking hat now?_

E: _It's covering too much of his fantastic, red hair._

T: _You're impossible. I can't take you anywhere._

E: _He's really tall._

T: _Oh Force, stop it._

E: Force _me_. _Hehehehe_. _Get it? You know, because-_

T: _Ew. Go back to your drooling. Leave _me _out of it._

E: _Oh, I caught a glimpse of his a-_

Taia violently shut off their connection, not wanting to hear any more of Ellin's disgusting gushing.  
Thankfully, the 'welcome'-speech, which was overly political and full of hatred against the new republic and its allies, wasn't very long and they were soon led to their workstations where their training would begin.

Taia looked over at Ellin before she was ushered into another corridor. Her eyes were still fixed on the General, wide open and full of wonder. _Oh man, she is going to be fangirling so hard._ Taia just shook her head and groaned silently.

And she did, to the point where Taia had to shut down their connection on several occasions throughout the following days.

"_I heard he's the youngest General of the First Order." – "Fascinating."_

_"Did you know that he's quite handy with a blaster? Some troopers saw him practicing." – "Good for him, Ellin. Good for him."_

Taia never needed to ask who she was talking about; the 'fierce' General was all Ellin could talk about since they arrived on the Finalizer. Even now, when they were sitting together in Ellin's room drinking low-alcoholic, First Order 'beer'. At least that's what it was probably trying to be.

"There is a rumor going around that he is secretly a droid because he never sleeps", Ellin whispered in a conspiratorial voice.

"I seriously doubt it. You should know that, actually. You have access to his medical files, don't you?"  
Ellin scrambled so fast out of the chair that she'd been sitting crossed legged in that she almost fell on her face. "I need to look that up _right now._"  
Taia snorted and handed her the datapad, where she quickly logged in to look for the desired information.  
"Ahh, damnit, he's fully human." She threw the tablet on her bed where Taia had been sitting opposite of her and sighed dramatically.  
"Were you seriously hoping for him to be droid?" Taia grabbed the tablet and scrolled through the info that Ellin had left open, ignoring her annoyed grumbling as she sat down in her chair again.  
"Shouldn't you be happy about that? You can't hook up with a droid. Oh! His eyesight is 10/10." Ellin's head snapped up, and she looked at Taia with a profound confusion. "I _don't want to hook up with General Hux_."  
Taia shrugged, not looking from her reading material. "If you say so."

"I do."

"Okay. I totally believe you. Oh, the bastard is in peak health condition. No allergies."

"He's not a bastard. Stop sounding so unconvinced."

"Well, he is. A bastard. And I'm not. This –", she pointed to the huge poster of General Hux hanging above Ellin's bed. _Force knows where she got this from, _"indicates otherwise."

Ellin rolled her eyes, dismissing Taia's concerned expression. "I'm just fascinated by him, that's all."

"Yup."

"Why would I hang up a poster of someone that I would want to hook up with? That's creepy."

"And disconcerting. But I don't judge. Hey, he skipped out of his checkups six times now. You could call him up for an _examination_."

Taia's suggestive tone went apparently completely over Ellin's head as she groaned in annoyance. "I know! I already did! He totally ignored it! It's apparently what he just _does_ according to the other medics. He's one of the few people you can't just drag by their foot into medbay, sadly."

"Why not?" _I'm surprised she mustered up the courage to contact him, even though its work related._

"Because he's the General, duh."

"Now, wouldn't that be fun? Dragging the bastard General by the foot to medbay for a prostate exam."

"Stop calling him a bastard! Don't judge him before you get to know him!"  
At that Taia rolled her eyes, having given Ellin the same 'don't judge a book by its cover' speech many times over. Only it had involved actual _nice_ people, not Mr. Genocide.

"So, you're telling me that your ovaries completely shut down your ability to instinctively distrust everyone?"

"I _don't _instinctively distrust everyone. I trust you. And some of my cousins."

"Remember the incredibly hot dude just a few weeks ago? The one that helped us, and you refused to trust?"

"Ah yes, I still have wet dreams about him. Are you saying my trust-radar is off?"

"Don't be gross, that's _my_ job… And yes, that's _exactly_ what I'm saying."

Ellin blew a kiss in the posters direction and looked Taia in the eye with a very serious expression. "I don't trust him. Don't worry about that. We're still on this ridiculous force-thing mission."

"But you just said-"

"That I'm fascinated by him. Let's just get some money, enjoy the ride while we're here, so to say, and fuck off before it gets too dangerous."

"I'm glad to know that the real Ellin is still there somewhere instead of this crazed fangirl."


	3. Chapter 3

T: _ELLIN! ELLIN! ELLIN! RED ALERT!_

E: _Yes, Taia?_

T: _RED ALERT! RED ALERT! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!_

E: _Wait a minute, I need to get my hand out of FX-9967 first._

T:_ OKAY!_

E: _…_

T: _…_

E: _So, why do we run? Did you stab someone?_

T: _WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT COMUNICATIONS OFFICER WAS AN EUPHEMISM FOR TORTURER?_

E: _Oh. I didn't know that. So _that's_ why they wanted your psychological profile._

_T: OH SHIT, I'LL NEED TO HURT PEOPLE. WHAT IF THEY MAKE ME TORTURE A KITTEN?_

_E: I heard they captured Mittens, the Resistance spy cat._

_T: NOOOOO- wait, you're making fun of me. This is serious! I can't do that!_

_E: Maybe it's therapeutic. Tell them that you're perfectly happy pushing some buttons in the command center._

_T: Oh, holy mother of the sacred Force!_

_E: What happened now?_

_T: I think I just fell in love... ABANDON PLAN TO ABANDON SHIP!_

_E: With Mittens?_

_T: I don't think his name is Mittens. He doesn't look like a Mittens._

_E: Send his image over. I'm on break now._

Ellin's eyes glazed over, blind to the world in front of her so to see through Taia's eyes.

The dramatic swirl of black robes and a broad back was all she saw before her world came back and she was staring at her steaming mug again.

_E: You fell in love with a possessed towel?_

_T: He's my commander._

_E: That's one way to get a promotion..._

_T: Hey! You're the one with a crush on the General!_

E: _Well…He's THE GENERAL._

T: _That is not a valid reason._

E: _It damned bloody fucking well is. A good valid perfect reason. He was made to be loved by the masses. Fuck your opinion._

_T: Stop prescribing yourself narcotics. That can't be healthy. _

E: _Heh._

Ellin was busy. In fact, too busy to entertain Taia with a simple conversation. Which was weird. Ellin was never too busy for that.  
She'd been silent all day through their connection. Not in an alarming way silent though, because she could _feel_ that Ellin was alright on the other end – just – too busy.  
Taia imagined it like trying to listen in on a conversation through a wall or closed door; she couldn't hear any words or distinct thoughts, just a quiet murmur if she tried _really_ hard.

If they wanted the other to hear their thoughts, they had to actively send them, which was great for privacy reasons and annoying when trying to figure out what the _heck_ was going on.  
Why was Ellin so caught up with work? Hadn't she suggested to 'fuck off' as soon as they'd received enough credits to continue their quest to become Jedi?  
_She'd punch me for putting it like that. "We're no jedi bla bla something something I stopped listening". That brat. _

Taia sighed and checked her data pad for the third time in ten minutes.  
Still no new assignments. It had been a slow day and Orin had snatched away her 'interview partner' as soon as he'd arrived, directly from the battlefield, apparently. He'd come in, still wearing his dirty body armor, his black, slicked back hair in disarray, in an obvious hurry to get as much information as fast as possible out of his target.  
She'd describe him as handsome if he wasn't such a huge pain in the ass. With his dark blue eyes, straight nose and great chin. All the perfect alignment of genes couldn't make up for his shit, mean and spiteful character.  
_And the fucking arrogance. Please, someone shoot him. _

As soon as her initial training was over, Taia, too, would be allowed to go directly on site to do some field work…_ With Commander Ren._  
Taia had seen him twice more after her first sighting of him, which wasn't a lot.  
_But we never intended to stay long enough to finish training and yet…Ellin doesn't budge. _

She thought about doing actual work to reorganize and categorize the testimonies, to translate some of them, sit and type all day like the others but she didn't care for it and it bored her out of her mind. She tried to suppress a snort. She literally preferred torturing people over actual paperwork.

Her coworkers were overly eager to do all the work for her anyways, always afraid that Ren would appear and breathe down their necks. Which he never did.  
_This doesn't interest him. Paperwork is beneath the Commander._  
She tried to imagine the tall robed figure sitting on a desk and checking if his officers had done their homework and couldn't.  
_He's occupied with Force business._  
She already felt the goosebumps rising on her skin as soon as she thought about it. She'd been delighted and terrified when she'd been told that Kylo Ren was one of the legendary Force wielders, apprentice to their Supreme Leader.  
It made Taia feel connected to him, dreading and at the same time hoping he would discover – sense – her and Ellin's connection to the Force.  
Ellin had dismissed that almost immediately: _The troopers are just scared, I've heard them talking. He's probably just especially good at torturing people, that whole get up is probably just to hide some hideous scars. The General isn't afraid of him. _

Taia tried to check on Ellin again, tapping into their connection to see if she was available for conversation now.

_Hello? Answer me, bananaface._

Still nothing. Not even an annoyed "shut up" or a mental shove. She'd actually have to send her a message via _communicator_. How barbaric.

_"Officer Jaxx, your system is offline. Tech support is on it."_

Taia would have preferred something less polite but her department was responsible for regular intercom-checks and she didn't want to get caught by a co-worker. That would be embarrassing.

_"Everything is in order, Officer Versio. System is intentionally offline to avoid static."_

"_Fine_, do whatever you want, idiot", Taia said to herself and stood up to make her way to the Detention Center. She'd made friends with one of the Stormtrooper guards. TK-339? Or 399? There were nines and threes involved.  
After her first week, a Junior Officer named Jo Espon informed her that if she'd ask any Stormtrooper about "case CC59" it was an open invitation to gossip.  
Jo Espon was her friend now. She'd named her torture droid 'Stephen' and had a bottle of distilled muja fruit in her drawer.  
Ellin had been her usual distrustful self and claimed it was a test to see if she was dedicated enough for the First Order and whatnot.  
_Of course, there's gossip on this ship. Probably more than on any New Republic ship. They don't have a dark, mysterious Force user floating around choking people._

Taia was determined to smuggle her own bottle of Kyrf into her desk if she found any. Maybe she could order it with the same service which she ordered her cosmetics with.

The detention center was right next to the offices of her and her fellow Communication's (torture) staff, with only a _very_ soundproof durasteel door in-between them.  
She stood in front of the control panel, back straight and heels snapping together to announce herself to the three stormtroopers who were supervising the prisoners. "Soldier." She didn't risk getting their names wrong, so she waited until they stood attention before she continued.  
_Your fault, guys, if you all look the same._  
"I want a report on case CC59." Their rigid poses eased right away, two of them returned to work while TK-whatever walked around the panel he was standing in front of and bumped her shoulder in a companionable way.  
"You are my favorite Stormtrooper", she said, grinning and bumping him back. He laughed; his voice distorted through the modulator in his helmet.  
"What about TK-933? Wasn't he your favorite stormtrooper yesterday?"  
_Oh, shit._  
His tone suggested that he was joking with her, but it didn't make her feel any less of an asshole.  
_I shouldn't feel guilty. They all look the same and they know it._

"Yes, but all of you are adorable sweethearts. Everyone is my favorite."

"Even Phasma?"

"_Especially _Phasma." _Who the fuck is Phasma?_

Now even some of the other stormtroopers laughed, standing a few paces back behind their consoles. Taia laughed as if she understood the joke.  
_Okay, so I'm guessing Phasma is _definitely _not_ _a sweetheart._

"Sooo…who did the fucking-up today?"

"A medic nearly decapitated herself with one of the security-doors."

_A medic? Please don't let it be Ellin, please don't let it be Ellin, please don't let it be Ellin…_

_"_Haha…which poor soul was _that _stupid? Aren't there any sensors on them?"

The stormtrooper laughed, shaking his head. "No clue Officer, apparently it's one of the newbies…no offense to you. She's in medbay now with a mild concussion. Apparently, there was a delay in the sensor mechanism, and she was too slow to get out of the way."

_Oh fuck, it _is _her. That's why she isn't answering. She's probably high on painkillers. Again._

"Haha. What a moron. Anything else?"

The stormtrooper, _not-TK933_, shrugged. "Apparently, we're not to drop off Commander Ren somewhere, in favor of bombing the Resistance."

"Great!" _More time to stare inappropriately at Kylo Ren._

The blank faced helmet stared at her, with what she imagined a straight face underneath the black-white bucket. "_What?"_ Due to the voice distortion of the helmet she couldn't tell if he sounded shocked or confused.

"Not great? Resistance bombing?"

After a second the stormtrooper shook his head and started to laugh. "I'm just messing with you, Versio. We're all looking forward to some action after that whole Starkiller disaster. Even with Ren haunting our halls. I was hoping for a respite."  
He clapped her shoulder, probably dislocating it in the process from the force of it. "Ha-ha, ow, oh yes. _Him_. Don't mind him, let him float around menacingly."

At the stormtrooper's stunned silence, Taia patted him lightly on the shoulder and turned around, back to her office where she conjured up a valid reason to go to the medbay to look for Ellin.

"Sooo... How in the shit did you manage to nearly lose your head?"

"How do you know that? What in the name of the _glorious_ General are you doing here? I mean Hux by the way. _Glorious._"

Taia shrugged, slowly walking over to where Ellin was sitting behind her desk, holding an ice pack to the left side of her face.  
_Glorious General?  
_ "You're easy to find and I'm bored. Congrats, by the way, you're the center of town gossip now, well, ship-gossip."

"Wow. Word travels fast here. What a bunch of blabber mouths. We're in the middle of a war! Don't they have anything better to do than discussing my head?"

Taia just raised an eyebrow. "They are discussing your intelligence, _Officer._ Did Hux walk by and short-circuit your brain?" She started to laugh but as soon as she saw Ellin's visible eye twitching she stopped. _Oh no._

"N-No. I just wasn't paying attention."

"Oh wow, sister, you're in deep shit."

"I said no! And I'm not. In any shit."

"I have diagnosed an unhealthy crush on the Hux."

Ellin rolled her eyes (eye) and threw her ice pack at Taia with a frustrated groan. "Oh, shut up. I'm the medic. And I just _slightly_ admire the General's physique. And regal face. And hair. And accent. _Have you smelled him?_"

Taia paused for a moment just to stare at her with emphasis.

"I got it, I got it. Keep that daydreaming to yourself."

A massive, black and purple bruise was adorning Ellin's left cheek and Taia hissed sympathetically. "Isn't there any fancy medicine to heal that right away?"

"Oh, it just looks bad. It'll be gone soon anyways."

"At least you're aware of it."

"Oh, shut up, you freak of nature."

"Are you referring to my height? Or my unequaled beauty?"

"You make me cringe on inhuman levels. Is that how you torture your…_torturees_?

"We go by their cell number, normally."


	4. Chapter 4

"Medic, have you been on a battlefield before? ", the chrome-colored stormtrooper asked. The fancy cape indicated that she was a commanding officer and to be respected.  
_A captain,_ Ellin thought, as she eyed the shoulder flap.  
Ellin nodded hastily, not able to answer verbally due to a piece of cake she'd stuffed in her mouth.

"Follow me", she commanded and turned around, her cape swirling dramatically behind her has she marched away from the cantina. Ellin had to run to catch up to the much taller woman.  
_Thank god she's shiny.  
_She coughed and thumped her fist to her chest as she tried to swallow the last bit of cake. "Is there a situation, Captain?"  
_Am I allowed to ask?_  
Instead of answering she entered a turbolift and typed in the destination code for the ship bay into the panel next to the door.  
_I'm going… on-planet? Off-ship?_  
"I promote you to head-medic for mission Y-78. You will be part of squadron 522, your blaster will be on the shuttle."

_What the fuck is happening. What is mission Y-crap. Which one is squadron 522?_  
She imagined a stormtrooper holding up a sign with her squadron number.  
_Not likely._

Luckily for Ellin, only two shuttles were loading. And in front of one of them stood the source and center of all her daydreaming since they had boarded the Finalizer.  
"G-General Hux. The General..?" Ellin couldn't get a complete sentence out, her mind blanking at the sight of him.  
"Squadron 522 will be responsible for the Generals safety", the Captain supplied helpfully.  
Ellin's heart started beating violently.

_Fuck. Me, on a mission… with the General. _

She was suddenly glad that she had spilled milk over her standard uniform earlier so that she'd had to change into the jumpsuit for field missions.  
His cold gaze rested for a millisecond on her (_OhmygohdTaiahelookedatme) _before it focused on the chrome Captain.  
"Phasma. Who is this?"  
Captain Phasma turned her helmet to her. "State your name, Medic." – "Officer Ellin Jaxx. At your service, General."  
She followed up with an _impeccable_ salute.  
And hoped no one noticed her sweaty palms.

T: _Ellin? Is that you there staring creepily at Hux from up close?_

E: _I am staring respectfully. I am so fucking glad that my bruise is gone. Where are you?_

The General nodded. "At ease, Officer."

_He spoke to me! _

Captain Phasma shifted and locked her helmeted gaze at the General again. "Board the shuttle, Medic."  
She retreated but was still able to hear a snide comment in the Generals direction. "Thank me later, Hux. Not even you should be too proud to take a medic with you."

E: _I am detecting high levels of high-command sass!_

T: _I love me some high-command sass. I'm over here at the other shuttle. Squadron 509._

E: _Ohhh, are we on the same mission? I have no clue what's going on, apparently the General didn't want a medic and the Captain just grabbed the first one she could find – me._

T: _I doubt it. We're here for prisoner extraction. Doesn't seem like something Hux would personally need to attend. You'll probably just escort him on some boring 'diplomacy' meeting nearby._

Ellin tried to spot Taia but couldn't distinguish her from the other officers standing far off in front of the other shuttle, surrounded by another stormtrooper squadron.

E: _TR-9907 just told me that we're going to the same planet! See you there, loser!_

T: _Oh, shut up. At least I'm getting a bit of action while you sit on your arse and do nothing._

"She's still staring at you, General", the pilot informed Hux, nodding to the not so discreet medic strapped in behind them.  
He sighed and glanced at her reflection in the windshield of their transport ship. He narrowed his eyes as he looked into her light brown eyes, widened in what seemed to be… wonder? She seemed familiar.  
_Is she one of the new recruits? _He couldn't put a finger on the feeling of recognition he had and shrugged it off after a moment. _Maybe I just passed her in a hallway. _

E: _Taia, we just had eye contact for a couple of seconds! _

Taia sighed, stopping herself from rolling her eyes at nothing in front of her squadron.

"Guys, what's the plan?" She nudged the helmeted figure to her right. He or she shrugged. "We land. Ground troops hand the subject over. You make sure it's the one we're looking for. We take off." She nodded to the general direction the other shuttle had been in before they took off.  
"And the General?"  
_What the fuck is Hux doing on a hostile planet without a battalion?  
_The trooper next to her shrugged again. "You best ignore him if he's not giving you orders." Taia blinked in surprise. "Oh. Sure."

_T: Hey, Ellin, is it usual for Hux to go off on solo missions?_

_E: How the fuck should I know? His hair looks great by the way. The air vent he's standing under is tousling his hair _just right.

Ellin looked at the General again, hands clasped behind his back and head turned slightly to the right as he exchanged a couple of words with one of the officers in the cockpit. He seemed…content. A moment later he turned his head further, his eyes resting on her again before addressing a trooper next to her: "TX-778 bring me my rifle, we'll be landing in a couple of minutes."

Ellin watched as Hux stood at the cargo bay door as it slowly opened, the glare of daylight surrounding him. His hand tightened on the strap of his insanely long blaster rifle. The wind whipped into his face, roughing his neat hairstyle up and letting a couple of strands fall on his forehead. He was smiling.  
_Why does he have to look so good on his way to murder people? _She sighed inwardly. _Couldn't I have fancied a hot radar technician or something? _Ellin cursed her ovaries, who clearly were to blame for this misplacement of attraction.

_E: Taia, how is it going on your side? We just landed and Hux looks illegally hot when he's about to shoot someone._

_T: Were on site - there's some commotion – seems the resistance saw us and is pulling out_

_E: Be careful, _you _don't have a hot General to protect you…_

_T: You just got distracted by his ass, didn't you…_

Taia rolled her eyes again and warily watched the treetops of the thick forest they had just landed in.  
Her eyes followed a smoking TIE fighter, spinning uncontrollably in the air before vanishing from her eyesight beneath the tall trees. She could feel the tremor of the crash in her bones.  
_This doesn't seem to be as easy as everyone was telling me it would be.  
_She kept her eyes on the sky as she saw X-Wings flying overhead, a bit too close for comfort.  
_We're too exposed, they probably saw us land._ "We need to move! Where's the checkpoint?" One of the troopers grabbed her by the elbow, dragging her towards…even more trees. "Quick Versio, they'll be bombing us soon."

_E: Taia, get down, we sighted some missiles flying in our general direction-_

Taia ran with her squadron, trusting them to find their way to their mission directive. She stumbled as the ground shook, pines raining down on them as the mentioned missiles hit ground.

_T: They missed us, I'll be safe soon_

Silence

_T: Ellin, this isn't the time for one of your jokes-_

"Fuck!"

_T: Ellin, fucking answer me!_

White noise answered her. This had never happed before. Was she…?

"Oh fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." That's the only thing that came out of Ellin's mouth, the only word she could think of to say in the moment. The other options of 'shit, he's dying' and 'he's bleeding out' and most of all 'my fault' were just not an option to say out loud.  
So, instead she projected everything she couldn't say to Taia, all at the same time, in an incomprehensive jumble of words and images. The only distinguishing thing she could send Taia was the pure dread she was feeling.

_E: Help me! _

She kept on projecting even though she couldn't hear an answer.

The gurgling sound of him choking on his own blood. The bright red color against his pale skin. The slick feeling of too much blood streaming out between her fingers.  
His face, for once not stoic, scrunched up in agony. The palest blue eyes, fierce and angry. _He doesn't want to die_. _He's fighting. He doesn't want to die. He does-_

**_Then don't let him. _**

Taia's answer came cutting through her own panicked thoughts, cementing itself in her brain as if it had been her own, her conviction to not let it happen.

The constricting pain in her chest vanished in a heartbeat, replaced by the usual numbness. She almost felt something like excitement at the amount of determination to _not let him die. _She told him so.

Ellin didn't know any appropriate, protocol way on how to treat her superior in this situation beside the standard 'save lives, no matter what'. So, she just crouched further down, placing her knees next to his sides, right under his shoulders, straddling him.  
"You are going to help me now, Hux." She took his trembling hands and placed them on his bleeding neck, hers over his to put more pressure on the wound.  
"You have bigger hands, General", she explained to him.  
"Mrs. Dedenne always told us to use everything available to us in a dire situation. And we have hands. Four of them. So, we're using them until Taia arrives."  
She was rambling, and they both knew it. He just couldn't answer. He probably wouldn't have anyways.

_He's probably dreading the fact that he's stuck with the newbie medic._

"Officer Versio is on her way. I sent her our coordinates. This will be over soon. I won't let you die." She kissed his forehead to reassure him – or herself.  
Fuck protocol, she needed him to live.

_E: Taia, hurry up, I _really _need those bacta patches. _

She felt calm, almost too calm for her to have been in a full-blown panic attack just a minute ago. Had she shoved it all to Taia?

_T: No, I'm okay, Ellin. Is there a boulder or a large tree near you? I can't see very far in this forest. _

Ellin shook her head and looked around, eyes wide. She projected everything she saw from her surroundings, the smells, the dead troopers behind them. Her fucking medical supplies too fucking far away from them.

_T: Stay calm, Ellin, what happened? I see the smoke, we're almost there._

"We were attacked." She said it out loud, her eyes locked on the General's.

_E: We were attacked. Some bomb. It flung me away. I passed out for a second._

She wasn't sure if she had said that out loud as well.

His eyes were focused on her. He'd be _so _annoyed to have his life saved by a rambling madwoman.  
He'd stopped gurgling, and he'd also stopped thrashing around.

Was he relaxing? Was the blood loss to much? Was he _dying_?  
She felt a stab of the panicking pain she felt just moments ago.

_Ellin, pull yourself together, you've done this loads of times_. She tried to breathe in. She really needed a slap in her face now.

T: _U_s_e that fucking brain of yours. What's the damage?_

_E: I ran to him as soon as I saw him. I don't think any of the troopers survived._

She sent the image of an injured Hux falling to his knees, one hand at the side of his neck, then falling on his side as she ran to him.  
I should have grabbed the fucking med bag first.  
She looked at it, dangling too far away from them on a tree branch. He would probably die if she tried to reach it.

_E: It's a cut, sharp, about two inches long. A shrapnel, maybe?_ _The bleeding's slowed down and he isn't dead yet._

_T: Go on. I can see you now._

His eyelids fluttered.

_Fuck no._ _Nonono_. _Not him._

"General, she's here! You stay the _fuck_ awake!" Had he heard her?

E: _When you get to my bag, get me the health stim and the bacta patches. He'll be alright._

The General opened his mouth to – say something? Spit at her? Yawn? Exhale one last time? She didn't let him.  
"_Shhhh_. You focus on not bleeding out, I'll do the rest."

A few strands of her hair fell into his face and his eyelids fluttered again.  
A sudden rage flared up insider her, stamping her growing fear out.  
"You are _not_ dying right before help arrives, you hear me? I'LL RAPE YOUR FUCKING CORPSE IF YOU DIE NOW!" - "WHAT THE FUCK, ELLIN!"

Taia. Thank the Force. She hadn't even heard anyone approaching.

"Med stim, now. Blue label."

_T: Where should I inject it?_

_E: Leg. The needle is long enough to go through clothes._

She saw his face twitch the moment Taia rammed the syringe in his thigh. She felt the difference immediately.

Hux's hands had stopped trembling and he exhaled, relieved. The medical stimulant worked fast, stopping the bleeding in just a few seconds, but it wasn't a permanent solution. It just helped jumpstart the healing, repairing the damaged tissue to a certain extent, though the energy boost would wear off in only a few hours.

She let go of his hands on his neck and held her hand out behind her, where she knew Taia was standing. The latter dropped the bacta patches into Ellin's bloodstained hand.

"It's safe to remove your hands now, General." After she'd applied the patches, she tried to assess the blood loss, which was difficult to tell since most of it had seeped into the dark earth underneath them.  
Relief came crashing down on her, hard enough to make her feel lightheaded. She could have laughed, cried and puked at the same time. Instead she grabbed his face and covered him in loud grandma-kisses.  
"Oh, you beautiful, beautiful _not-_dead man. Thank the fucking _galaxy _for modern medicine. Oh shit." The perturbed and shocked look in his face stopped her from kissing his blood-smeared face again. _Whoops. _One of his arms grabbed her thigh, making her freeze mid-thought, while the other hand massaged his temples, seemingly not caring about smearing partially dried blood all over his face.

E: _Okay, we'll both ignore this shit. You too, Taia. I didn't smooch the General. _

The snort from her otherwise silent friend told her that she would _not_ forget about this. "You'll need a transfusion, sir, once we're back."  
He just looked at her from underneath his hand, one pale blue eye visible. "Jaxx." He sounded tired, exhausted even. It didn't suit him. For her, his voice should always sound sharp and unrelenting.  
"Sir?" He lifted his arm from her thigh. "Off."

_Oh shit, I'm still sitting on the General_._ This could have been way sexier without all the blood loss and panic. So not professional. _

She hastily stood up and helped the General up into a sitting position, propping his back against a tree trunk near them.  
"We need to stay put until transport arrives. Please stay seated, General. And don't fall asleep. I'll go check on the troopers."

Taia watched her solemnly checking the pulse of the five dead stormtroopers strewn around the clearing. They'd obviously taken the whole impact of the bomb.

_T: Why were you alone on site with so little security detail? How reckless! I thought this was a diplomacy mission._

Ellin didn't respond not because she didn't want to but because she didn't know either, she just walked back to them with her med bag around her shoulder.

"No survivors, Sir." He nodded and focused on Taia. "Versio, where is your squadron?"  
She straightened her back, sweat still on her forehead from running to their location.  
"They should arrive any minute, Sir. I went ahead as soon as I received Officer Jaxx's distress signal."  
He eyed them both. "Who else received your distress signal, Jaxx?"

E: _Fuck. What do we tell him? I transmitted with my mind? Would he believe us? _

_"_I was only able to transmit to Officer Versio, Sir. The situation was dire."  
He nodded at that, but his eyes stayed on her. She didn't know how to react so Ellin just stared back, waiting anxiously for the squadron to come and break the silence.  
"Any injuries, Officer?" he said at last and Ellin responded by blinking twice.

_T: He's asking if you're injured, you twat. Tell him you're okay!.. You are okay, right? _

Taia underlined her mental message with a huff.

_E: Oh, right. Yes, I'm- _"None, General. This is…all yours." She eyed the blood splatters that had gotten all over the upper part of her light gray jump suit, the colors contrasting and making the blood stand out more. Looking down on herself, it looked like some weird, abstract painting.  
He nodded and stood up, leaning against the tree.  
Of course, the man wouldn't listen to her.

Squadron 509 arrived only a few minutes later. The General refused the stretcher and any other help offered him. He even refused another stim shot. He went around barking orders as if he hadn't just nearly died a few moments ago. No one dared to ask him why the General was on site while Resistance troops were dropping bombs, instead of standing on the bridge of the Finalizer coordinating this whole mess.

At Ellin's and the rest of the crew's pestering, (still, mostly Ellin) the General agreed to an immediate trip to the medbay.  
_After _a shower and a change of clothes. Vain bastard.  
At the same time, he pointedly looked at her. She didn't need a connection through the force – or not, to know that he meant '_You too, Jaxx'_. As if the sight of his blood on her offended him.

_E: Jeez, calm down, no one is going to know it's yours, General Dickbag. _

She waited for him in examination room 96. It only occurred to her afterwards that she hadn't told him where to find her, but she supposed he knew anyways.  
_He commands this ship, he'll know. _

She wanted to receive him in her clean, dark gray scrubs instead of that obnoxious, dirty, and probably smelly jumpsuit.  
So, she showered as fast as she could and checked for injuries. She found a bump at the back of her head but nothing else.

_How the fuck am I so lucky?  
_Ellin thought about how Taia would give all the credit to the Force and sighed.  
_No, it was just the strategic advantage of me being the medic and therefore in a protected position. _  
She felt hollow when she tried imagining Taia in a similar situation, without the protecting ring of stormtroopers around her but instead being part of it.

_Stop thinking. Prepare everything for the General._

When he entered, she didn't salute, she just stood up from her desk and nodded.  
He didn't seem offended by her lack of military etiquette.

_Because I'm the medic, and he's the patient. _

For some reason she had expected him to march in, flanked by two stormtroopers, which would have been ridiculous. He was in the medbay of his own ship, no threat in sight.

_Besides me, who nearly killed him with my panicked incompetence. Fuck. Maybe I lose my shit again and accidentally stab his carotid artery instead of the vein in the crook of his arm. _

They stood there, for what felt like hours but were probably seconds instead and stared, waiting for the other to speak.

"How are you feeling, General?"

"Just _fine_, Officer."

He pressed his lips into a fine line and raised his eyebrows almost imperceptibly, slightly tilting his head to one side, which happened to expose the side of his neck _where he fucking took off his bacta patch._

Ellin instantly narrowed her eyes at him. This time she managed to put more steel in her voice. "I'm asking to evaluate your medical status, General. Not to start a conversation."  
He huffed and his demeanor relaxed.  
She gestured to the examination table and he sat down without a complaint. "The med stim should be wearing off soon so I'm expecting you to feel shitty. I just need to know _how_ shitty."

"I wouldn't use those words _exactly,_ but the description is accurate... I'd say very. "

"Any pain or other injuries?"

"Tremendous headache, a few bruises, most of all; just simply exhausted."  
He listed it like a file report, all the while staring at his hands that were folded in his lap. Ellin nodded.  
"That's the stimulant wearing off, and the blood loss. Please remove your jacket and shirt, I'll need to put you on that." She pointed to the pole where she'd prepared two IV bags.

He did as she told him until he was only in a tight, gray tank top. Ellin explained to him what IV bags were for while she snapped on her gloves and looked for a suitable vein, prodding the inside of his left elbow. Trying and probably failing to stare discreetly at his exposed, pale skin.  
_Fucking delicious collarbones._

_The General works out. _She pressed a thumb into his bicep._  
Fuck, stop being creepy, stay professional, idiot._

"The blue one is the follow-up therapy to the med-stim you received earlier. It will finish repairing your damaged tissue and the clear one will restore your lost fluids."

_Those fucking fountains of blood you lost. _

She managed not to fuck up and was proud that her hands didn't shake when she pierced the pale skin of his left arm with the hollow needle to connect the IV-drips.  
She fumbled a bit longer on the bandage than necessary, admiring his surprisingly well toned arms.

_I thought he'd be a stick underneath that perfectly pressed uniform._

"I need you to lay down and _rest_. I'll be back in a few minutes."  
He nodded, eyeing the tubes filled with a bright blue liquid that was supposed to restore him completely.  
_I'll go and get some bacta patches that you can't just rip off,_ she thought, narrowing her eyes at him.

She came back after a short while and saw him still sitting, his left arm with the infusions resting on his thigh while he used his free hand to type something on a datapad that was lying on his other side.

_Fucker, I said to rest. Does he ever stop working?_

She stepped into his personal space, right in-between his knees and was sure she'd broken a few unspoken medic-to-patient-rules when she grabbed his chin and exposed his neck where just a slightly reddened patch of skin resided instead of the bloody cut.  
"You won't need to remove this one, it'll absorb into your skin in a few days _when there is no danger of your new skin breaking open again._"

_And you bleeding out on me. Again. _

"Officer?" He stood at the doorway, hesitating before leaving.

_And going to work instead of resting, like I ordered him to._

"Yes, General?"

"I'm relieving you of your duties for three shifts. Rest."

_Moron. _

**"**Only if _you_ do, Sir!"

She thought she might have seen the left corner of his mouth lift before he vanished entirely.


	5. Chapter 5

"Who is Phasma again?"

"The shiny one, Taia, the one that's _literally_ the hardest to miss."

"How do you know that?"

"She's the one that grabbed me for that god-awful mission."

"Oh, you…at least got to molest Hux a bit."

Ellin sighed and shrugged. "Something is off. He showed up to the second follow-up examination, even though I was awfully unprofessional before."

"Why the sour face, then?"

"He doesn't _mind_ me being inappropriate with him. I even made a stupid joke and he _smiled_. He _smiled_, Taia!" _If the twitch of the right corner of his mouth could be counted as a smile_.

"Again. Why is that bad?" Taia narrowed her eyes, straining to imagine a smiling Hux. She failed.

"He's the General! I slapped his hand away when he wanted to fiddle with his stupid datapad and _he let me_."

Taia groaned and rolled her eyes. "_Where_ is the problem?"

Ellin squealed girlishly and stomped her foot. "I don't know how to deal with that!"

"Oh, I forgot how socially awkward you are and how you're not able to handle someone you like being somewhat friendly with you. Right. How can I help you?"

"It's not just _someone,_ Taia! It's _the General_!"

"Calm down, he's just a man after all. You seem to forget that he's not some sort of deity."

"What can I do?"

"Accept that he's showing interest in you for one. Don't block off and run away like you usually do…and, well, see where this is going."

"_Interest? In me? But he's the General!"_

"Or whatever. _Breathe_. Jesus. Maybe he wants a weird friend that isn't a bootlicker." _Tell yourself that if it stops you from panicking._

"Oh, thank you, Taia." Ellin stood up from the steel bench she had been lying on, legs crossed at her ankles and hands folded on her stomach. "You're right, he just wants a friend."  
Taia just nodded, eyeing her through narrowed eyes. "Why are you so…jumpy?"

She watched as Ellin whipped out a small mirror and lipstick to fix her makeup and adjust her First Order hat which she wore without a complaint.

"I'm not. I was just worried that I was reading too much into things."

_I'm _sure_ you were, Ellin, _thought Taia sarcastically but kept it to herself. "Where are you going? Off to see Hux?"

"Yes, actually. The General summoned me."

"He _summons _you when he wants to hang out?"

Ellin shrugged, stashing her lipstick where Taia was sure her blaster actually belonged. "Yeah, normally he's a bit more demanding but he mentioned something about teaching me how to play chess because of my strategic incompetence so I guess it's an invitation?"

_Strategic incompetence? What a charmer. _"An invitation to his office? I'd call that work."

"No, his private quarters", Ellin replied nonchalantly and walked off, Taia staring after her with a shocked expression plastered on her face.

_Yeah, just friends, my arse._

"Orin, you useless shitstain, tell me where the fucking gym is!"

"Is that a way to talk to a fellow Officer, Versio?"

"You stole my prisoner and that allows me to talk to you however the _fuck_ I want."

"I didn't. Remember how I invited you for a drink the other day?"

"Yes. You still owe me that one, bitch."

"I take it back. Your manners are atrocious."

"Pussy."

Orin rolled his gorgeous blue eyes and went back to typing away on his computer. After a while he stood up and leaned on the wall next to Taia, waiting for her to react to him. She didn't. She ignored him for three full minutes before he got impatient and cleared his throat.

"Versio. "

"Orin. What do you want? "

"I'll tell you where the gym is."

"Why the change of heart, dickhead."

He rolled his eyes again and shrugged. "Because I'm not as obnoxious as you are."

"Okay. Valid. Shoot."

"V-799."

Taia squinted her eyes at him. "On the superior Officers deck? Wipe that disgusting smirk off your face, you're lying!"

Orin's annoying cocky smirk just widened. "Well, we do have a few privileges working under Commander Ren. We don't need to share space with the common Officers."

"Sweet. We can go for that drink now."

They, in fact, did not go for a drink. Taia took two beers to go and clinked bottles with a put-out looking Orin as she shouldered her bag and made her way to the gym.

_E: You mean slut. _

_T: Thank you, I do my best. _

When Taia entered she wasn't as alone as she had hoped.

_Fucking Orin. _

Someone was already punching furiously into one of the training dummies in one corner of the very spacious training hall.  
He didn't seem to notice her, not even when she dropped her bag loudly on one of the benches along the wall.

_Where do I change? This is literally just one big hall. _Taia shrugged to herself, figuring that the other guy wouldn't bother her and started to change on the spot. She was pulling her shirt over her head as stomping footsteps approached her from behind.

_"__What the fuck?"_

_Hello there, stranger._

_"_What the fuck yourself, avert your eyes when a lady is changing her clothes, will ya?"

She made a shooing motion with her hand at his completely perplexed face. The tall, dark-haired man just opened and closed his mouth before turning around and shaking his head.

"Who are you?"

"Who are _you_, dude?

"Who am _I?"_

"This conversation is _riveting_, honey. You can turn around now, by the way."

Taia tried to focus on his face, those dark mysterious eyes, his unforgivingly perfect hair after what seemed to have been an intense workout session judging by the amount of sweat covering a very well-built, naked upper body.  
_He's not staring at my tits, so I shouldn't stare at his. Goddamn, where has this man been since I've been on this fucking ship? _

He noticed her staring, though, and a small arrogant smirk formed on his full lips. "You don't know who I am", he stated, a slightly curious tone in his deep voice.  
Taia swallowed, her mouth suddenly very dry. _Oh my god, I need to get my shit together. _ "Should I?" His smirk broadened.  
_Oh, I should. Fuck.  
_She held out a hand in greeting. "I'm Taia. I work in Communication. Care for a beer?"  
She nodded to her bag, where she had placed the two bottles she got from Orin.  
He hesitated a second before taking her hand. "Sure, I need a break anyways. Nice to meet you, Taia."  
She went to her bag, got the two bottles out and handed him one.

_Nice to meet you, too, nameless hunk._

"Oh, sorry, I normally don't need to introduce myself. I'm Kylo Ren."

"Kylo Ren?", Taia spluttered, almost showering him in beer. "Yeah, sure, good one."  
Taia laughed and slapped his shoulder a bit harder than intended, making an almost obnoxious sound that resonated in the hall.  
_It would sound so dirty if we had sex here-ohmygod fuck shit I need a cold shower! _

_"_And this isn't a gym for officers but only for Kylo, I mean, _your _private one. That would be _so_ _extra, _haha."

"It is, actually."

_Wait a second, he's serious._

_T: Ellin? Have you ever seen Kylo Ren without his mask?_

_E: No, he's _your _boss. Hux has, though._

He eyed her curiously, waiting for a reaction from Taia. She stalled by chugging her beer while Force-conversing with Ellin.

_T: Describe him._

_E: Uhm. Lumbering brute with no self-control._

_T: Of _course_ Hux would say that. _

_E: Oh, and also; a stupid scar down the right side of his face and neck. A little girl gave it to him…?_

_Scar…well, fuck.  
_Taia looked at him again. Really looked at him. His tall, broad frame, the black, high-waisted pants, not standard uniform. _Those damn pecs distracted me. _And the obvious scar down his face that matched Hux's limited description. _I knew he was hot!_

"Commander Ren."

_ORIN, YOU ABSOLUTE FUCK!_

"Officer Versio."

He suddenly looked more reserved, as if he was reminded of his rank and regretting their banter.

"I apologize for the lack of protocol, Sir."

Now he looked downright annoyed. _Shit, fuck, what do I do now? What did I say that was so wrong? Wait...I didn't tell him my last name. _"Wait, you know who I am?"

"Well, you _are _in my division, Officer."

"I'm sorry for calling you extra, Sir", Taia said, meekly taking another sip.

He stared at the bottle in his hand and sighed.

"Well it _is_ quite extravagant, I guess." Then he mumbled a 'fuck this' under his breath and downed his bottle in one go.

_What the fuck is happening!? _

Taia almost considered reaching out to Ellin again but couldn't think of anything to ask her.

"Taia. May I call you Taia? Yes, I do, you literally introduced yourself a minute ago-"

_He's rambling. _

"Would you mind if we-"

_He's totally rambling. _

"If _I _dropped protocol?"

"Drop protocol?", Taia repeated, dumbfounded by the sudden change in Kylo Ren.

"Yes, just-", he waved his hand around nervously.

_He's nervous? Oh my God. _

"Drop the formalities. And sit. And talk. Like people. It's been a while. For me. "

_Fuck, he's adorable. _

"It's been a while since you've… sat and talked?" Taia couldn't help the smile that was spreading on her face.

He huffed and ran the fingers of his right hand through his hair "_No_, you know what I mean."

"No."

"No?" His face fell and Taia's smile only grew bigger.

_Damn, Kylo Ren has some damn powerful puppy eyes. _

"No, I wouldn't mind if we dropped protocol to hang out. "

They just stood there, Taia smiling stupidly at him while he played around with the empty bottle in his hands.

"Good."

"Good. I'm sorry for interrupting your training, Sir_. "_

"I was finishing up anyways. Don't worry. I'll uhm- I'll go take a shower and – see you here in thirty?"

_Can I do a little work out and shower and look gorgeous in 30 minutes? Heck yes, I can for your sweet ass. _

"See you in thirty", Taia confirmed.

He walked off but stopped halfway and turned around again, a concerned expression on his face.

"And don't 'Sir' me, call me Kylo. "

"Yes, Sir, uh, _Kylo_. "

"And get a service droid to bring us some more beer. "

"Sure." _In the gym? Why not. It's more private, I guess. _

"Sorry, who was the one that told you this is a public gym? He must have overridden my codes just to prank you. "

_Do I rat out the moronic coworker to my very temperamental and violent boss? Heck, yes. _

"Orin", Taia replied without hesitation, rolling her eyes.

He sighed, mumbled something that sounded an awful lot like 'that fuckhead Orin' and continued on walking to where Taia supposed the showers were.

T: _Soo…_

E: _So, what, Taia?_

T: _Turns out that things happened that I didn't expect to happen._

E: _Mind being more accurate?_

T: _Ugh, you sound like Hux!_

E: _I'm waiting. I _literally _have someone else's life in my hands right now._

T: _Oh, gosh! Don't answer me if you're in the middle of something, idiot!_

E: _Don't worry, I've got it._

T: _Like when you threatened to rape Hux's corpse, would he have died?_

E: _Don't remind me. That was embarrassing. Poor General. What happened, Taia?_

T: _I will _always_ remind you. From afar it looked like you were strangling him._ _Haha._

E: _Taia._

T: _Okay, as I was saying... Turns out Kylo Ren is actually a really chill dude._

E: _…if your definition of chill is 'severe, demanding and temperamental'. Sure._

T: _Noo! Listen. So, I walked into the gym…_

E: _Is this the start of a joke?_

T: _Where I found Kylo Ren…_

E: _This _is _a joke._

T: _Who apparently hates Orin as much as I do, and we drank a beer on it._

E: _In the gym?_

T: _In the gym. With Kylo Ren._

E: _With his mask on? Does he have a special straw?_

T: _No, you walking brain damage, he wasn't wearing his mask._

E: _Oh, that's why you asked! Show me! How many eyes are missing? I bet he doesn't have lips and all you see is teeth – oh and his nose is probably gone too-_

T: _You are literally describing a skull. Nothing missing, everything in place, the scar that you said, brown eyes, full lips-_

E: _Balls, he's hot._

T:_ Fairly handsome, yes._

E: _Fuck, shit, he's absolutely gorgeous. Stop gushing, Taia, and show me that half-gods face._

T:_ Are you being sarcastic?_

E: _No, I'm just able to sense your badly hidden horniness._

"I am in favor of creating a Kylo Ren fan club."

"_Now_ you like him?"

"His dark presence enhances the ferocity and determination of the General. They look evilly powerful together."

Taia groaned in frustration. _Always back to the bloody fucking General._

"You _do_ know that they are _both_ in charge of the Finalizer and its crew? He's not some shadow or _enhancer_ of anything."

Ellin rolled her eyes and leaned back in her seat opposite of Taia who was now pointing at her with a fork. They were eating late lunch in the canteen.  
"He's not even listed in the ranking charts! He's just…there. Being mysterious, I suppose."  
Taia snorted and shoved her empty food tray away.  
"He _is_ in charge of the interrogation units. The ones _I_ work in. And he has at least two private ships. _And_ he only takes orders from Leader Snoke-" Ellin sighed and stood up without letting Taia finish her speech, awkwardly maneuvering herself out of the cantina bench she was sitting in, trying not to hit any of the other First Order staff with any of her body parts.

"How do you plan on jumping his bones, then?"

"_Excuse me?", _Taia hissed, conscious of all the other people around them and quickly looking for a way out.

"You know, _buzzing the brillo_ with Kylo Ren."

"Are you _insane_? When did I ever-"

"The bedroom rodeo with the Knight. Sink the sausage. _Makin' bacon_."

"Where did you learn all of these...?", Taia said incredulously, almost admiringly.

"I mean copulation. _Sex."_

"I know what you mean, idiot!"

"Oh. Then answer my question. When or how are you intending on _feeding the kitty._"

"You're gross. Please stop that."

Ellin laughed and shrugged. "Wanna hang out at my place?"

"_No_. I am not spending more time near that poster. Why would you draw a golden laurel wreath on his fucking head?"

"Because it belongs there, obviously. Okay, off to your silly excuse of a habitable space, then. Would you believe me if I told you that the General gave the poster to me?"

"_No._ Wait, did he?"

"Fuck, no. Ha! Look at your face you believed me there for a sec!"

Taia sighed and rolled her shoulders, trying to work out the stiffness that had settled in due to the hours spent sitting and staring at screens. _Pretending to work._ „Well, I guess he's vain enough to distribute posters of himself. "

"He's not! I heard Kylo Ren gives autographs _without being asked to._"

"Don't lie to make Hux look cooler. It doesn't work."


End file.
